Ngoc Benti

Ngoc Benti was a UNSC Navy corpsman serving aboard the prowler UNSC Red Horse in 2552.

Biography

Early life

Benti was born on Earth in a cushy suburban household. This kept her fairly isolated from the war.

The Mona Lisa

Main article: Skirmish on Mona Lisa

In October 2552, she was part of Sergeant Lopez's Marine detachment when they boarded the prison ship Mona Lisa, unbeknownst to the fact it had been a converted into a laboratory the Office of Naval Intelligence used to experiment on the Flood parasite.

As the Marines boarded the drifting Mona Lisa, they were attacked by a group of unarmed and unarmored Sangheili, which they dispatched with ease. The Marines soon received new orders to enact the Cole Protocol, and split up into two parties. Sergeant Lopez assigned Benti to lead the group sent to purge the ship's secondary NAV database in the engine room, with her team consisting of Clarence, Gersten, Orlav and Tsardikos.

On their way to the engineering, they were engaged by the Flood in the ship's recycling plant, losing Tsardikos, Orlav and Gersten. After escaping the Flood into a maintenance room, they encountered a neurotic prisoner called Patrick Rimmer, accompanied by his companion, an Elite he had dubbed "Henry". As they made their way toward the engine room, Rimmer explained them what the Flood were and what had happened on the ship.

In the engine room, they witnessed how their pilot Burgundy was dragged into the proto-Gravemind the Flood were forming around the slipspace drive. Upon hearing Lopez's conversation with the Red Horse crew over the ship's PA system, Benti destroyed the proto-Gravemind with a pair of fragmentation grenades. They then proceeded to regroup with the survivors of Lopez's party near the ship's last remaining escape pods.

On the way to the escape pods, Benti was wounded by a Flood combat form she recognized as Sydney, and soon began showing symptoms of infection. However, she was picked up by Henry, who had already saved her life twice. Once at the airlock, Clarence shot Rimmer and proceeded to kill Henry, revealing himself to be an ONI operative with the mission to ensure that no one but the Marines left the ship. During the ensuing standoff, Benti sacrificed her life to save Lopez and the rest of the squad by pushing herself against Clarence and disappearing into the oncoming Flood horde. As the Flood infection killed her, she tried to hold onto a mental image of Sergeant Lopez waving goodbye.

Trivia

• Judging by her name, she may be of partially Vietnamese descent.
• Though established to be a Naval corpsman, she is addressed as a "private" several times in The Mona Lisa. This was likely an error on the author's part, but it may have been intentional to exemplify that Benti was as much of a member of the Squad as the others were.
• She originally disliked MacCraw, viewing him to be an idiot, but later gained respect for him, even referring to him as 'sir'.
• Benti smoked cigarettes, and developed cravings during times of stress.

Gallery

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  Benti in her corpsman BDU variant.

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  Benti wearing her combat helmet.

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  Clarence and Benti encountering Rimmer and "Henry".

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  Benti, Clarence, Henry and Rimmer in the Mona Lisa's engine room.

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  Benti prepares to destroy the proto-Gravemind with grenades.

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  Henry saves Benti on two occasions.

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  Henry proceeds to carry an injured Benti.

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  Benti shoves herself and Clarence into a horde of Flood.

List of appearances

• Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
  • The Mona Lisa (First appearance)